Hi,
I thought I might sample opinions about the most effective paid and free firewall softwares out there.
So what d'y'll think?
I currently use Zonealarm. It is quite effective, but I'm getting irritated with it's memory consumption.

The installer also includes an AV engine that you can tell it not to include when it installs the firewall (at least when I downloaded it). Make sure that it only installs the firewall components if this is still the case.

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Do I need a separate firewall program besides windows firewall on a server?

That's probably too vague of a question to answer. It really depends on what the server is doing, what kind of data resides on it, etc. The quick answer is that a server should basically always be behind a good hardware firewall, and whether or not you need to run a software firewall (or the Windows firewall) on the server depends on the architecture and security posture of the local network and other hosts on that network.

I've also tried checking it versus a couple of port scanners and it passed those tests.

So if you don't have enterprise needs and have a modern router that does it's own stateful packet inspection of incoming data between your computer and the modem, then the built in Firewall for windows is probably good enough, for the average use.

~edit~

I haven't yet tested the Windows Firewall on a public hotspot yet and I am wary of connecting to one regardless of the software firewall I am using.

__________________
I'm glad the raid to kill Osama Bin Laden was secret, so no Republican Senators could send him a letter about it first. #47Traitors